Anxiety Encourages

By Kara Goldstone

In our interview with Paris Zhou, we were surprised when she said she used her anxiety as a source of motivation to learn English. When first researching this topic we instinctively thought that anxiety would be a deterrent for most people. Paris, along with some of our interviewees, proved our theory wrong.

"For many students, language courses are the most anxiety-provoking courses that they take." (Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1986; Mac- Intyre & Gardner, 1989, 1991) This is where Paris's language anxiety began, when she had to speak to her English teacher in her seventh grade class. As MacIntyre describes in his article, "How Does Anxiety Affect Second Language Learning? A Reply to Sparks and Ganschow", social language anxiety, behavior, and cognition are cyclical and interdependent. The more Paris was pressured to speak to her teacher, the more anxiety she had, and consequently her cognitive performance suffered. This leads to more self-deprecating cognition which further impairs performance. (MacIntyre 92). Paris experienced this self deprecation while first learning English, she states, "I was afraid that since I could not speak English well he [her teacher] might feel I was not good." It was for this reason that she avoided her teacher at school. When they ran into each other in the hall way he would ask how she was, and she would smile and utter a few words she learned in her textbook such as, fine, thank you, and you? (Zhao 1) This was the bulk of their discussions for a while. However, one day things changed. Paris's mind was no longer under the control of language anxieties' cyclical pressure. She sought the help of her teacher and made a positive change to learn English. MacIntyre is correct in that language anxiety does hinder ones desire and capability to learn a second language, however, language anxiety may also stimulate and provoke students to try harder, a fact that MacIntyre does not acknowledge. As Paris stated the anxiety she experienced when learning English did deter her from learning English at first, however, through immersion and encouragement from her teacher she began to embrace English. Now Paris is studying in America, speaking English with her American roommate and new friends fluently. She attributes her English success to her teacher, Michael. Through his encouragement and her desire to learn she overcame her language anxiety and conquered her second language, English.